Regional U.N. meeting explores African development

Africa has the potential to expand development with the help of international support and stability, Asha-Rose Migiro, U.N. deputy secretary general, said on Sunday at the opening of the 11th Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM) meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Next reports.

The meeting gathered U.N. agencies in Africa in support of the African Union and its New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) program (11/15). The meeting aims to "provide a platform to consider Africa's sustainable development agenda, including Africa's transformation into [a] green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication," BERNAMA-NNN-ENA reports. "The RCM Africa was established as part of a U.N. reform to improve coherence, promote synergy and co-ordination among U.N. agencies and organisations and strengthen their collective response in addressing Africa's priority needs at regional level and sub-regional levels," the news service notes (11/15).

With Africa's significant human capital and resources, the continent has the potential to achieve the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, Migiro said, the U.N. News Centre writes. "The continent's people need neither pity nor charity, but rather the tools, institutions, stability and freedoms to create incomes and jobs," Migiro said.

"'International solidarity and a level playing field - especially in global trade - will go a long way toward helping the continent realize its noble objectives for its people, its prosperity and its stability,' she told the meeting," the news service reports.  

Migiro referenced September's U.N. summit on the MDGs and said leaders sent a clear message. "If we step up our efforts, the MDGs remain achievable by 2015, including in the least developed countries," she said. "'However, the summit also stressed that more concerted efforts are needed, particularly in Africa,' she pointed out, adding that the September summit's outcome document set out some of the key challenges," the news service writes (11/15).

Migiro said, "[T]he RCM Africa should continue to play a central role in supporting Africa's efforts to meet the MDGs," BERNAMA-NNN-ENA reports (11/15).